Eric R. Danton | Sound Check

Review: Wilco in New Haven

If it isn’t one thing, it’s another.

Last time Wilco performed in Connecticut, in 2003, the band played to a mostly empty theater. The Chicago six-piece returned to a packed house and a troublesome sound system Sunday at the Shubert in New Haven.

Although leader Jeff Tweedy’s crackling vocals sounded early on as if they were on the verge of overloading the PA, it didn’t seem to bother him or the band as they roared through a 25-song, two-hour set that dug all the way back to the beginning of Wilco’s catalog, a rare treat from a band that has evolved from country-rock to experimental pop, with a dose of vintage folk thrown in.

Wilco takes requests for winter tour

Is there a particular song you're just itching to hear Wilco play when the band performs Feb. 24 at the Shubert in New Haven? (Or, for that matter, at any other post-Chicago date on the band's winter tour?) Feel free to ask for it.

In a novel bit of fan interaction, the band is taking requests here, from a drop-down menu of more than 100 songs. (Alas, "We've Been Had," a late-model Uncle Tupelo song that Jeff Tweedy and company were performing as recently as a few years ago, is not among them.)

(Photo by Frank W. Ockenfels)

Wilco to play New Haven

Wilco. Shubert Theater, New Haven. Feb. 24. Tickets: $33, on sale Dec. 15 at 10 a.m.

(Incidentally, that's going to be a great few days for concerts: Lyle Lovett/John Hiatt at the Calvin Feb. 23. Wilco Feb. 24. Springsteen at the Hartford Civic Center Feb. 28.)

Dwight Yoakam's tribute to Buck Owens

One of my favorite things to listen to in the car on road trips is a live recording from 1993 of the band Coffee Creek playing a bunch of old country songs (and a few obscure, rootsy classic rockers) at Cicero's Basement in St. Louis.

It's a bootleg, of course — Coffee Creek was an ad-hoc Uncle Tupelo side project featuring Jay Farrar and Jeff Tweedy trading off on vocals with Brian Henneman of the Bottle Rockets. They played fast and loose, and songs like Doug Sahm's "Mendocino," George Jones' "A Good Year for the Roses" and Buck Owens' "Love's Gonna Live Here" are easy to sing along to, which is a key ingredient of excellent driving music.

The same goes for "Dwight Sings Buck" (New West), Dwight Yoakam's new collection of songs paying tribute to Owens, the Bakersfield-style country icon who died in March 2006.

Jeff Tweedy, rock critic?

Wilco leader Jeff Tweedy's current listening includes the bands Dr. Dog, Grizzly Bear, Panda Bear, Battles and A Hawk and a Hacksaw, he writes in Sunday's New York Times.

His interest is more than casual, too. "I'm probably the only person that wanted to be a rock critic and failed at it and started a band," Tweedy says.

Son Volt covers the Beatles

Son Volt recorded a version of the Beatles' "Hello Goodbye" for an ESPN commercial heralding the arrival of soccer star David Beckham in Los Angeles.

The clip aired for a week starting July 9 (yeah, I'm late on this), but you can watch it here. Pretty cool.

Here's how it happened: ESPN has a licensing deal with Sony (which owns a 50 percent interest in the Beatles catalog; Michael Jackson owns the other half). The deal stipulates that although the sports station can license Beatles tunes, it cannot use original Beatles recordings or sound-alike versions. Other cover versions are fine, though, which worked well in this case: The network's advertising agency wanted the song to have an alt-country/Americana flavor, and who does alt-country better than Jay Farrar and Son Volt?

(Thank you, Dan, for chasing down that information.)

UPDATE (8/14/07): The tune is now available for download via digital music stores like iTunes.

'They should call 'em over-pants ...'

It's a musical bonanza tonight on "Lil' Bush," when Frank Black voices the Devil and Jeff Tweedy takes a turn as Goddy.

The animated show on Comedy Central, about the misadventures of George Dubya as a suit-and-shorts wearing kid, and his friends — Lil' Condi, Lil' Cheney and Lil' Rummy (voiced by Iggy Pop) — is more or less a one-joke satire, but the joke is pretty funny. Rousted from bed by his mother in a previous episode, Lil' Bush declares, "When I grow up, I wanna be a decider. And Aquaman." Beautiful.

In tonight's episode, there's trouble in science class as Lil' George struggles with the concept of evolution and along the way finds "Goddy" (that's right, Wilco fans: turns out Jeff Tweedy is God), while Lil' Cheney meets the Devil, voiced by Frank Black. Don't act so surprised, Pixies lovers.

The show airs at 10:30 p.m. Eastern.

Wilco at the Pines Theatre

Not long before he half-jokingly described his band's songs as “serious, introspective rock music,” Wilco singer Jeff Tweedy was busy attempting to catch airborne licorice nuggets in his mouth Sunday night at the Pines Theatre in Northampton.

Those gloomy rockers, always lost in their own heads.

He triumphantly caught a couple of pieces, courtesy of a fan who lobbed them gently in the singer's direction, but Tweedy and the licorice-tosser weren't always in sync. Tweedy and the rest of Wilco, however, most certainly were.

Wilco defends licensing songs for ads

Wilco recently licensed songs from its new album, "Sky Blue Sky," to Volkswagen for use in the German automaker's TV ads.

Predictably, the move has come under fire from some fans, who have accused the band of selling out. Wilco replies, via its website:

With the commercial radio airplay route getting more difficult for many bands (including Wilco); we see this as another way to get the music out there. As with most of the above (with the debatable exception of radio) the band gets paid for this. And we feel okay about VWs. Several of us even drive them.

Wilco is hardly the first band to license songs, nor is it the first indie-rock band. From Led Zeppelin, the Who and John Mellencamp to the Shins, the Mooney Suzuki and M. Ward, rock songs have long-since replaced original jingles in most commercials (anyone remember "Have you driven a Ford lately?" or "Oh what a feeling! Toyota!"?).

Are those bands sellouts?

Uncle Tupelo reunion: Not gonna happen

Although neither Jay Farrar nor Jeff Tweedy has ever indicated much desire to resurrect their first band, Uncle Tupelo, that doesn't stop interviewers from asking about it in a pretty large percentage of stories about their current bands, Son Volt and Wilco, respectively.

It's time to lay to rest that line of inquiry, now that Farrar has said definitively that he's not interested in a reunion.

"I don't want there to be a reunion and I don't think there ever will be," he told The Morning Call in Allentown, Pa., for a recent story about Son Volt's latest, "The Search."

Right on, Jay.